


Fortune, Fortune, Smile and Fade.

by ThatOnePsycho



Category: Mage: The Awakening, World of Darkness (Games), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: BAMF Jirou Kyouka, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, F/M, Gambling, Mage Midoriya Izuku, Magic, Midoriya Izuku is a Dork, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, Monster Hunters, Precognition, Quirks (My Hero Academia), Tarot, Urban Fantasy, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27575471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOnePsycho/pseuds/ThatOnePsycho
Summary: At the age of Seven, Izuku sat upon the Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn and understood the timeless nature of time. At the age of eight, Kyoka danced atop the Watchtower of the Golden Key, and understood the music that made up the Forces of the World. At the age of fourteen, Koji bleed atop the Watchtower of the Singing Stone and understood Life. They Awakened to the Truth.
Relationships: Jirou Kyouka & Kouda Kouji, Jirou Kyouka & Midoriya Izuku, Kouda Kouji & Midoriya Izuku
Comments: 13
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, look. Psycho's having a meltdown and posting a new story by cutting a chapter short. Must be the second Sunday of the month.
> 
> Feel free to ask questions if you don’t know much about the World of Darkness, much of the info dump got axed for next chapter

\--- X Izuku X---

The ever present, easy smile on Midoriya Izuku's face shrank, just a bit, as his burner phone went off with the phone call he knew was coming. He put his chopsticks down, standing up and smiling at his Mom, "Do you mind if I take this?"

"No," Inko said, shaking her head, "Who is it?"

"Kyoka, probably," Izuku said, stepping into his room and shutting the door, locking it with a click, "Shukumei Higami."

"Higami," Hankyo said, voice low as Izuku pinned the flip phone to his ear in the crook of his shoulder and pulled out a pack of worn tarot cards from his desk, splitting the Major Arcana from the Minor and began shuffling like a weaver, so little mana it didn't even count as a mote flowing through his body, "Koda found the group."

Tower in the upright position.

Well, well, well, they were starting off good today, weren't they?

"Where?" Izuku asked, drawing the next card.

Justice in the upright position.

"Apartment in Shinjuku, I'll tell you more at the base," she said, before pausing, "What're the cards saying?"

"Give me a second," Izuku finished, pulling out the last card.

Devil in the reversed position.

"Tower, Justice, Reversed Devil," Izuku said, sweeping the cards back up and shuffling the cards again before returning them to the deck, "How soon can you be there?"

"Same as ever," Hankyo said, "about an hour. We doing this tonight?"

Izuku flipped a coin, catching it and glancing down. Heads, "Yes. Tell Sasayaku to fall back to the safehouse, I'll see you then."

"See you then," Hankyo said, phone clicking off and leaving Izuku to stand in the room, breathing in.

"Mom!" He called, opening the door, "Kyoka and Koji are in Tokyo! I'm gonna go out with them tonight!"

Inko looked up, practically beaming. She had been so happy when he had made friends again, and going out was just part of that, "Ok, just don't be home too late!"

He wouldn't if he could avoid it. Giving Inko a brief hug, he stepped out of the house and rushed away. About two blocks away, he ducked into an alleyway and applied a bit of Time magic to himself after making sure nobody was around, since he'd prefer not to risk the burst of Paradox, thank you very much. Facial hair sprouted out of his clean shaven face into a full beard, his hair grew long and lost its curls like his mom's. And with that, for the moment at least, Midoriya Izuku had passed into shadows.

It was Shukumei Higami who stepped out of the alley, silently dancing a two headed American quarter on his fingers. Followers of the Lie had been found, and that meant he reckoned it was time for a reckoning.

Higami might not like it, but there would be blood and death before the night was up. They may not be Seers, but the Promethean Brotherhood weren't much better in the eyes of this Libertine, even if it was only a few Hunters. Magic, while meant for everyone, shouldn't be stolen from an Awakened. It was one step away from walking the Left Handed Path.

\--- X Kyoka X---

Jiro Kyoka, "Houko Hankyo" in the magical world, closed her eyes and listened to the music as the bullet train exited the station and took her towards Mustafu. Not the music of her phone, that was just there so people didn't look at her strangely, but the music of the world.

That was where she was distinctly different from many of her peers that walked the Watchtower of the Golden Key. She wasn't particularly religious, even after staring out into what could have only been called Heaven and watched the Forces rock it. She didn't consider what she had found God there, not in the traditional sense.

For her, it was the music. The roar of fire and the crash of thunder, the hiss of solar wind and the rumbling of the earth. In so many ways the Sleepers around her couldn't even begin to comprehend, the world was so many different instruments merged together.

Not that it was their fault. Even if they were Awake, she wasn't sure they would be able to open their mind to it. That was what the Watchtowers were for, so the person going through the Awakening could see the Truth in a way that they understood it. She had tried to explain Aether to Higami once, and he had just given her a blank eyed look. Maybe it was because Arcadia was so thoroughly divorced from Forces.

But either way, from someone who had always been two steps ahead of anyone who wasn't another Acanthus, and tended to get serious if things weren't looking good in their future… that look, that inability to comprehend most of what Kyoka had seen when she had danced in the Watchtower, it had made her want to drop the topic on the spot.

And when she had asked him…

"What did I see?" He had laughed, dancing a coin in increasingly elaborate ways, "I think it's easier to say what I didn't see in Arcadia, Houko. All of it will be true and none of it won't be. Isn't that the great thing?

Pushing on the Sympathetic Bond between the two, Kyoka waited a second.

 _What's up?_ Higami asked.

_Everything alright?_

_Should be fine_ , he said, _You want to give me the information no-?_

 _Last time I did that we had to bail your sorry ass outta a fight_ , Kyoka immediately shot at him, cracking a small smile at the nervous 'laugh' that came a second later.

 _I knew you were gonna_ -

_Doesn't mean I'm not giving you the chance to again, Hi._

_Fine, fine_ , Higami huffed, _I'm gonna go play some-_

 _And don't do anything that wastes Mana_ , she ordered.

 _Like contacting me over kilometers?_ he asked, _I could probably find them_ -

 _I can hear you_ , she deadpanned.

 _Joking, joking, and by the music_ , Kyoka couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. Not about finding the Prometheans before she got there, she didn't doubt he could if he put his mind to it (only hadn't, because the case had started near her home), but if he wouldn't do it if he had the chance. Higami was significantly more outwardly serious than many of his peers, but he still had the streak of diving in head first without a fear that made up those who saw Arcadia.

 _Just… go play some cards_ , she said in exasperation. Might as well give him that much, so he didn't do something worse, _Or go bug the Nakatomi-En so they know why we're doing something in their territory._

The conspicuous silence told Kyoka that Higami had completely spaced that maybe, _maybe_ telling the local Consilium that three out-of-city mages would be getting up to their necks in shit was a good idea. Which meant every type of supernatural being in Tokyo, plus some other Hunter cells, would have been looking at the area. And Tokyo, as the biggest city in the world… well, it was easier to say what type didn't live there, using Quirks to live from day to day without anyone expecting anything.

Vampire, Werewolf, Sin-Eater, Changeling and Beast all hid within the beating heart of Japan. And something about the city made them more sensitive to the manipulation of the Supernal then they were in other places.

But perhaps it wasn't surprising it hadn't crossed Higami's mind. He was ultimately an Urbanite, a member of the Watchers of the City (a group that had broken off of the House of Ariadne after a philosophical dispute about the nature of the threads they both revered). To him, Mustafu and Tokyo were his territory. He could navigate them like a map had been seared into his mind, finding hidden places as easily as a regular person could find a landmark. Whether they be the once abandoned location they used for their Sanctum, or seedy gambling houses to swindle out of their money.

And in Mustafu, there wasn't really anyone to contest the claim that he ruled. Not when it came to Awakened, at least. Despite UA's placement, few Mages cared about Heroic enough to turn their eyes towards it, either obsessed with the lost Atlantis or fighting against the Seers. And those that did were normally Seers of the Throne, plunging them immediately into conflict with the Libertine. And the other supernatural, if they existed there, didn't care to contest his control of the city in the Nameless War. Meanwhile most Hunters were smart enough to recognize poking the sleeping dragon in his lair was a bad idea when he wasn't hurting anyone who didn't deserve it.

But Tokyo wasn't the same. And he had to be reminded of that sometimes.

\---

_Izuku refused to show the pain from the burns, keeping a steady smile on his face as he wandered towards home. Kacchan really needed to learn how to control the power of his Quirk. It had been two years, and he wasn't any better at controlling it during their games. And the burns stung._

_Stepping forwards, Izuku felt something crawl up his right side, while heat did the same to the left… and in front of him, brambles formed. Somewhere, pressed down by the weight of what he would later come to call a lucid dream, something told him this was wrong. That he shouldn't be seeing this, that this wasn't how the world worked…_

_The last gasp of the Lie trying to stop him. But it wouldn't work, it couldn't work._

_Izuku stepped forward towards the brambles..._

_Izuku turned towards the Shadows and Death._

_Izuku turned towards the Flames and Punishment._

_… and as the first thistles tore into him, leaving a pain that wasn't a pain, the potential behind him was torn to pieces, yet remained as an echo of an echo. In the timeless place Izuku had entered, where everything was true, something had become undeniably untrue..._

_But at the same time, they were so true that they continued to exist. In defiance of Fate, in defiance of the Abyss, the paths Izuku could have walked but didn't still existed without a doubt. It should have been a paradox, but in this land of pure Truth it wasn't. Izuku would never walk through the fires of Pandemonium and face the torture of his demons to reach the Watchtower of the Iron Gauntlet. He would never wander the infinite graveyard that was Stygia and find the Watchtower of the Lead Coin. But there would always be a forgotten echo of what could have been._

_Each time a thistle caught him, before his eyes something that could have been, could be, appeared in front of him. Him floating objects around him as a young boy, or breathing fire, or bolts of fire floating around him. Each time they tore away, true yet untrue in a way different from the previous ones. He was Quirkless, but there were times where he could have not been in this spiraling path he was on._

_An image of him older, moving objects on a beach with a blonde haired man watching him. Another of him practicing with a white scarf as a black haired man stood behind him. One looking at him with unashamed pride, the other hiding it behind his own scarf._

_His father coming home, sharing a hug with his mother and then him. His father abandoning them. His father a villain, his father a hero._

_In the distance, thunder rumbled and lightning hit the ground visible from a strange hole in the brambles with such force that it shook the ones Izuku was walking through. More potentials flashed through his mind as it sent more thorns into his body._

_A brown haired girl with rosey cheeks, a black hard one smiling, a blonde with glasses, a pink skinned one with horns, a boy with two toned hair._

_Marriages, children, divorces. A hurricane of feeling around Izuku as he pushed forward, not even sure where he was going anymore and not really caring. These were real, but they weren't real. Who would want to be friends with a Quirkless Deku? Let alone marry them?_

_The next cuts showed more. Kacchan apologizing, a red haired boy slapping Izuku on the back, a blond haired boy crackling with electricity._

_A boy with features like a rock quietly giving hand signs towards Izuku._

_He was almost there now, wherever there was. He could feel it in his bones, in his soul._

_Another bramble. Here, he was with a different group. A man with chapped lips, another with burn scars across his body and skin grafts stapled to his face, a girl with blonde hair draped across him, a man of black mist. A picture of Kacchan sat front and center on the board._

_Finally, Izuku stepped out of the brambles, realizing that at some point, he had begun to go higher and higher until he was at the top of a massive tower under the moon. In the distance, uncontrollable storms raged in the clear sky. The ground writhed like a living thing. Kingdom rose and fell and rose again in seconds, knights and dragons killed and ate each other. Men on stags rode across the sky hunting other men running across shattering planes only to vanish into nothingness without any warning just before the charge hit home._

_It was beautiful._

_Casting his eyes around the tower, Izuku noticed a burning stone firepit in the center. Flames that were green, and blue, and orange, and gold cast the names scratched into it in light. Other people who had been here, who had seen this beautiful place._

_It wasn't an Individuality, but somehow that made it more beautiful. Everyone should be allowed to see it._

_Reaching down and cracking off a thorn, Izuku leaned down to find a free place to add his name. One stood out, free and front and center._

_Midoriya Izuku_

_Izuku stepped back, sitting on the tower and watching the twisting and turning of Fates in front of him. Of Time slaying kings and destroying mountains. Learning with each bit._

_The Truth had been revealed to him, and never again would he believe the Lie._

\--- X AN X---


	2. Mage the Awakening Primer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here this is. Hopefully it'll be helpful for those who don't know much about the World of Darkness. Most of this will be discussed in universe eventually, but I figured it would be nice to have now.

On the Watchtowers

To steal a quote from Vivec "The Tower is an ideal, which, in our world of myth and magic, means that it is so real that it becomes dangerous. It is the existence of the True Self within the Universal Self".

The New World of Darkness is purposely vague in creation of the different Splats (there was a vocal group of Old World players who complained that just how fleshed out the past was actually led to some hinderence, due to the fact that there was already a status quo before the players entered the stage, and in almost all Splats the gap between, say, a Twelfth Generation Vampire and a Tenth Generation one was already a hard enough hurdle to cross, and if you were playing in a large city it wasn't just possible but almost certain that there'd be, like, a _Seventh_ hanging about) but the general belief among Mages goes that once, Magic was a hell of a lot more common and Atlantis existed. Then a group of Mages, the Exarchs, physically entered the Realms Supernal, essentially the 'source code' of reality that normally requires becoming an Archmage, literally your Arcanum in microcosm, to do.

They proceeded to break Reality, Sundering the Realms Supernal from the Fallen World with the Abyss, an unreality where all things considered essential to existence do not exist at all, and became essentially gods amongst Archmages.

Unity- Mind

General - Forces

Father - Prime

Eye - Space

Chancellor - Matter

Nemesis - Spirit

Prophet - Time

Psychopomp - Death

Raptor - Life

Ruin - Fate

Gate - Abyss

But the Oracles, those Archmagi who ecisted before and during the creation of the Exarchs each forged a Watchtower, a creation as much symbol as it was physically within the Realm Supernal. Each one is constantly calling, allowing a Sleeper to pierce through the Abyss and see the Realms in their Glory, Awakening them and shattering the chains of the Lie as they understand the Truth based on what they saw.

There are five commonly agreed upon Watchtowers, One that Mages admit may Exist and two that only a particular fringe group believe in.

The first is the **Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn,** in the Supernal Realm of Arcadia (this is an important distinction to make because another gameline, Changeling: the Lost, has it's own version of Arcadia which is a million times more awful in like every way because the Fae there are a hell of a lot closer to actively malicious). People who awaken here gain skill with Time and Fate, but because it's a place of spontaneity (that description of Izuku watching things happen from the top of the Watchtower? I actually cut it down, it would have originally included mentions that the kingdom going to war was the _same_ kingdom from different points in its own history) they have little control over the Forces of the world.

The second is the **Watchtower of the Iron Gauntlet** in Pandemonium (essentially, Tough Love Hell). Those who awaken here gain control of Space and Mind, but because those are both ephemeral, have little control over Matter.

The third is the **Watchtower of the Lead Coin** in Stygia (Afterlife Waiting Room). Those who Awaken here gain control over Matter and Death, but since both of those are, well, dead, have little control over Spirit.

The Fourth is the **Watchtower of the Golden Key** in Aether (Old Testament Heaven), a realm where the Prime energy of magic and the Forces of the World flow unrestrained. But because of the amount of power, those who awaken there find it hard to manipulate Death.

And the final is the **Watchtower of the Singing Stone** in the Primal Wilds, the Realm of Life and Spirit (three guesses who Awoke there and the first two don't count) with the inferior Arcana of mind.

Factions:

The TL;DR is that the two major factions of Mage are the Pentacle Orders and the Seers of the Throne. And they're at war. Almost all the time.

The **Pentacles** are essentially the 'good guys'. They're carrying on the good fight started by those who opposed the Exarchs in the wake of their sundering of reality. Up until the turn of the twentieth century, they were the Diamond, four orders that claim direct lineage to Atlantis.

**The Adamantine Arrow** : Existence is War, Enlightenment is Honor, Adaptability Is Strength, The Supernal is the Self, and Service is Mastery: Claiming descent from the Atlantean military, they are obviously the most warlike of the Orders (though a bit more on that later). They believe that magic should supplement the body, that Enlightenment is not found in books or meditations, but on the field of battle in a fight for the righteous.

**Guardians of the Veil:** Paradoxes strengthen the Abyss as punishment answers pride, Sins for a just end grant Wisdom to the Awakened, and Merit must rule the Fallen World.: The spys and police of Atlantis, they hold that magic must be subtle. That to draw too deeply on magic and risk Paradox is nobody's fault but the caster. In modern day, they also tend to hunt the Left Handed Mages (those who study forbidden magic) of other Orders while keeping their own in an "Ends justify the Means" belief.

**Mysterium:** Knowledge is Power, Knowledge must be Preserved, and Knowledge has a Price: The scholars of Atlantis. They horde knowledge like a dragon, feeling that some of it is too dangerous for _anyone_ to use.

**Silver Ladder:** Diamond (The Awakened are one nation), Thunder (Imperium is the right of humanity), Star (The Silver Ladder is the path to victory) and Blood (The Sleepers follow): The priesthood of Atlantis, they believe that there is a caste system in place, but it is also meritocratic. You _should_ aspire to reach as high as you can go. Sleepers had the right to Awaken stolen from them by the Exarchs, so their lower place is not their fault, the Awakened should wish to learn more.

At the turn of the Twentieth century, they allied with a fifth group, creating the Pentacle from the Diamond.

**The Free Council** : Democracy seeks the truth; hierarchy fosters the Lie, Humanity is magical; human works have arcane secrets, and Destroy the followers of the Lie: Originally a disparate band of Mages who refused to join any of the Orders because they felt looking back at Atlantis was wrongheaded, and they should be looking forward towards what humanity has created since. They were on the brink of outright war before the Seers of the Throne approached them for an alliance. Things got a bit heated, the Nameless struck the single most bloody blow on the Seers since the end of the Sundering, named themselves the Free Council and promptly joined the Diamond. You know, normal stuff. Remember that "more on that later" from earlier? Yeah, these are the more. The other factions can keep an uneasy peace with the Seers as both sides prepare to attack the other. The _default_ standpoint of a member of the Free Council upon finding out there are Seers in the area is basically "where are they, when are they there, and how much rocksalt can I load into a shotgun to kill them while making it as painful as possible?" They're not dumb, they just really, _really_ fuckin' despise the Seers. The Followers of the Lie in their Creed are the Seers, and that should say everything that needs to be said on that front.

**Seers of the Throne: Conquer** the Watchtowers, Control Magic, Divide Humanity, Destroy the Pentacle, Enslave the Gods, Protect Humanity, and Regulate the Abyss **:** The Mages who feel that, instead of fighting to tear down the Lie and unthrone the Exarchs, it's easier to just work for them.

**Hegemonic Ministry** : The Servants of Unity, users of nationalism to control the masses. Were the ones who approached the Nameless and have spent the time since bleeding out on the proverbial floor. Since backstabbing is what the Seers do, they've seen little to no support in getting back on their feet.

Ministry of Panopticon: Servants of the Eye. Surveillance, Secret Police, Conspiracies are how they rule the day. The unofficial most powerful Ministry since the Hegemonic got kicked around.

Ministry of Paternoster: Servants of the Father. Control through zealotry, dogma, blind faith.

Praetorian Ministry: Servants of the Father. Push for bloody, horrible meatgrinder wars so that the Sleepers can't hope to focus on rediscovering the ability to Awaken.

Other:

**Paradox** : Essentially, the Abyss fucking with a spell. While any spell has the _chance_ of triggering Paradox, it jumps considerably if you try to do something fuck off obvious around Sleepers. This actually makes the status of the MHA world a double edged sword. Previously, throwing a fireball or causing claws to sprout from your hands was a good way to cause Paradox to drop on your head. Now? Now so long as someone doesn't know your Quirk shouldn't allow that, you can probably get away with it in front of a Sleeper.

**Banishers** : also known as "The Fearful", these poor fuckers got the ultimate short end of the stick. For some reason, their Awakening went 'wrong' and they gained the ability to preform magic... but the shard of the Abyss that enforces the Lie in Sleepers didn't go away. Considering Magic+Abyss+Sleeper=Mind Whammy, it essentially translates into them mind raping themselves every time they use magic, quickly driving them into homicidal insanity to hunt down Mages and kill them.

**The Abyss:** I've mentioned it a couple of times now, but now onto the big problem with being a Mage. The Abyss is... not easy to describe. It's essentially Paradox itself. Everything untrue made manifest. And while it might not be actively malicious (as that implies it _is_ something), it's definitely passively so. And, as I said, likes to hitch a ride on obvious spells in front of Sleepers (which is why Izuku ducked into an alley to age himself up). Fuck it up and _at best_ you're gonna have to let the spell detonate in you and do damage your Healing Factor ( _easily_ the worst of anyone other than the Hunters) just can't heal. At worst, you bombard the Sleepers with Untruth, tear open a portal to unexistence and let a Horror that _isn't_ into the world


	3. Chapter 2

Right, got Red Owl, then Bloodstained Hero, then a Destiny fic to work on before I roll back around to this.

\---X  **Higami** X---

"We can deal with it alone, Shougekiha," Higami said carefully into his phone, voice polite but stalwart. The older girl on the other side paused, before humming.

"And if you can't?" She asked.

"You'll be the first to know," Higami said, flicking a card around in his fingers. The thin sheet of Lunargent, silver run through the Supernal until they could act as a focus for magic, stamped with one of the minor arcana and Glyphs of High Speech, glowed. It had cost him more than he cared to admit to get enough silver to 'forge' them… but they were worth it. His magic flowed through them naturally. Acted as a focus and a weapon in one.

And after that one fight with those werewolves…

"I shouldn't let you do this," Shougekiha said, "but~ I trust you, Hi-Kun. As much as anyone in our life trusts anyone else. Stop them before they hurt anyone, please."

"Oh," Higami said, magic glowing around him, "We will."

Hanging up, Higami crashed back onto the couch in his Sanctum… though he currently wasn't alone. Though on some level he wished he was.

It wasn't that Sasayaku was bad company. Quiet, skittish, clearly uncomfortable in the abandoned subway station Shukumei Higami made his home, yes. But the boy with a face like rock, the one he had seen in his Awakening so long ago, wasn't bad company. 

It was that Higami himself still wasn't used to having partners. Ever since the end of his practice with Kiha, he had been a bit of a lone wolf despite Hankyo's best efforts. It was easier that way.

People thought of Acanthus as almost careless. Like they didn't care about the lives of their cabalmates. It was a bit more complicated than that. The truth was, you got risky with people's lives because you had seen them die. Over, and over and over again. The first time, it was a tragedy. The second time, it was disgusting (because you should have been better). The third time, it was painful… and by the seventh? By the seventh, it was a farce comedy. 

Sometimes, the 'risky' maneuver you had done was precog'ing and watching  _ not _ doing it end with your ally's head splatter blood across the sidewalk as a brick fell 'conveniently' at the right time to kill them. Magical warfare between Acanthus often didn't look like warfare, because it was perhaps the most subtle. It was the way they were, while not impossible, few of those who entered Arcadia were capable of manipulating the Forces. 

While manipulation was normally a stereotype associated with the Mastigos, rummaging around through someone's head  _ was _ their staple… Higami was quite aware that Acanthus were just better at hiding it. They had probably already seen the conversation you were having.

Leaning on the leather couch he had bought through… less than honest means, if he was honest (so a few people had lost their money in supernaturally rigged card games. Like a casino, legitimate or otherwise, wouldn't have done the same?), he drummed his fingers. Awkward silence stretched, and Izuku opened up Hero Watch and flicked to the Shinjuku sub-forum. Maybe someone in there had seen the Brotherhood?

\--- X  **Koji** X---

Koji watched Higami spin a card in one hand, a phone in the other. It was… it was a simple gesture. Deceptively so, considering what he had seen him do in the six months since he had joined the formerly two man cabal. Three, when the bubbly girl showed up on occasion. 

Those were the worst days since he Awakened. It wasn't the girl's fault, she was, in fact, the only member of the group who was capable of using Japanese Sign Language. But when she showed up, it normally meant things were going wrong.

Or she wanted to compare notes with Higami about something she had done or watch TV or play video games. One of those. But most of the time, if Koji was there, it was the first.

Like with the werewolves. It had been… been...

_..Higami who was the first to notice them, his left eye, which had misted over for a second, had snapped to attention as suddenly as the metal cards hissed over themselves. He said something in his own unique form of Accented High Speech, the language of the Pre-Fall mixing with Japanese so old it might as well have been a different language. The… older (they had been put together because they were in the same age group, but Higami sure looked older than him) man sped up suddenly, silver flashing in the moonlight as green eyes hardened to emeralds.  _

_ Five, ten, fifteen, twenty. Twenty enchanted cards flew out, nineteen into the lead wolf's chest while the last slid through the fun on the top of the back, leaving smoldering skin in its wake. It fell, writing and convulsing before it collapsed. _

_ "Werewolves," Higami growled, his quirked grin fading to a snarl. More cards flicked out, and he stepped over the body so he could fall back-to-back with Shougekiha. An Imago, the form of a spell before it had been created, formed around her as she held out her arms. And then, a torrent of blue fire poured down her arms and out towards the nearest wolf. _

\--- X  **Kyoka** X---

Kyoka turned down the alley after stopping and making sure it was the right one for the third time that night. Ok, first, how the hell did Higami even find this place to begin with, second, how did he  _ keep _ finding it and third, why was it so damn far away!?

Ok, so those questions were rhetoric. He had found it through his very much preternatural ability to understand Mustafu like the back of his hand. The same was true for the second question. And the third was a combination of letting him be in relative isolation when he felt like being an anti-social bastard and that it was built over one of the two Hallows, places where Supernal energy had been trapped in the Fallen World, in Mustafu. 

The other, unsurprisingly given Hallows tendency to gravitate towards high places and the fact that even Sleepers got a 'good feeling' about locations with one that they couldn't place, was under UA itself. So pretty much on lockdown by Sleepers, and therefore a damn waste of potential.

Familiar spells, powered by the Hallow she was approaching, passed over Kyoka. Time, Fate and even Space and Matter. Ready to begin a series of 'unfortunate accidents' at the first sign of hostility. The Imago of a Praxis, one of her signature spells, formed around her. The spells stopped, and then let her pass with little more than a light hum. Then her phone went off. Kyoka glanced at it, before raising it to her ear, "Hey, Kiha."

"Kyo-Chan~!" The older mage said, before her voice dropped, uncharacteristically serious, "I need the location of that Brotherhood base you're gonna be fighting."

"Why?" Kyoka asked.

"Just wanna be around if anything goes wrong," Shougekiha said with a hum, "You know?"

"Yeah," Kyoka said, "I'll text you the address."

"Thanks!" She cheered, then hung up. Kyoka shot the address to her through text, and then finished the trek to a door and down the staircase into the Sanctum.

It had been a couple of months since she had last been here, which meant that Higami had remodeled again. New couches, a bigger and better TV with several consoles hooked up to it, a workbench full of wrenches in one corner and a kitchenette made up the main room. Off to the sides, a changing room, bedroom and the room of the Sanctum where Higami actually did his studying of Magic and 'watched tape' sat. Larger than it should have been, but a bit of Space magic tied to a Hallow wasn't the difficult thing in the world.

Speaking of the Acanthus, he was sitting on the couch, flicking a tarot card between his fingers. The green and black riverboat gambling suit he wore slightly messily, with the standout example being that the red tie being scrunched up.

"I'm here," she said.

"Yep," Higami said, gesturing for her and Sasayaku to take some seats, "You want to explain what we're dealing with to Sasa, or should I?"

"You do it," Kyoka said, stepping behind a curtain to change, "I need to do an equipment check."

"Alright," Higami drawled.

\--- X  **Higami** X---

"Sit down," Higami nodded to Sasayaku, who did so. Izuku stopped flipping the card and then, with an equally careless gesture, used a slight of hand to return it to one of the wrist mounted holster for each half of the major Arcana. Higami sighed, "Do you know the Promethean Brotherhood?"

_ No _ , Sasayaku signed, just slow enough for Higami to pick up on. Why did Kiha give him a mute kid? She knew he couldn't use JSL, he  _ knew _ she knew.

...Also, why was he calling Sasayaku a kid? They were the same age, heck, he might be  _ older _ than Izuku was. But… uhg…

He really, really didn't want to be doing this.

"The Brotherhood," Higami breathed in, chewing the inside of his cheek and thinking how to start. Finally he picked the option that seemed easiest, even if it was only tangentially related, "It doesn't have anything to do with the Prometheans you might meet one day. Those people are what happens when a Sleeper tries to play Alchemist and bring back the dead. These… aren't. They're Sleepers, Sleepwalkers a lot of the time, and they're technically Hunters."

Higami fell silent, eyes trailing, "We don't know how they came around. But they've got a spell, and no, we don't know how they can use it… I'm honestly surprised we're the first to get to them, they're not well liked. It rips the Magic from you, Yaku. They kill you and take your magic. And if you're lucky, that's all they'll do. There's horror stories of them eating people, or torturing them for hours. We don't know if the Spell gets stronger that way or… point is, we're going after them tonight. We're gonna catch them and clear them out. If we don't do it a Vampire will, or a Werewolf, or an actual Promethean, or any of the other Supernaturals that live in this world. And they won't do it quickly, so let's go and give a swift death to evil."

Listen to him, he sounded like a humorless thug. A week from now he'd be at the UA Entrance Exam and now he was plotting the death of men and women.

Just pretend they were Seers to the Throne. That'd make it easier until he was there, and then he'd see what they'd done, and it'd be easier to justify. 

"You ready?" Higami asked towards the changing room. Hankyo stepped out, a leather motorcycle jacket zipped up and a black scarf around her neck, her jacks tucked into it, and fishnet stockings under a black skirt and tucked into combat boots.

"Yeah," Hankyo said, before turning towards Sasayaku, "You don't have to come in with us, Higami and I will do the dirty work. Just keep an eye out for us, ok?"

_ Yes _ , Sasayaku signed, and Hankyo offered him a smile over her scarf before pulling it up over her mouth.

\--- X  **Hankyo** X---

Hankyo frowned into her scarf as they made their way through the streets of Shinjuku. Higami walked even with her, while Sasayaku trailed behind them. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Higami play with his bunched up tie and, for a moment, she let a smile crack across her face despite the grim situation they were approaching, "Why do you wear that if you can't get it right?"

"I'll figure it out eventually," Higami grumbled good naturedly, grinning at her. She snorted, smiling back over her scarf.

"It's been years, Hi," She teased, "if you're gonna do that, you better get on it. What're you seeing?"

"I…" the grin flickered off Higami's face for a second, his left eye staring into nothingness as he pulled his hat low, "They must have stolen power from a mage with some skill in time magic or something. I'm being blocked out. We enter the building, and then… everything becomes hazy."

Hankyo reached up, touching where her balisong machines were hidden in her jacket. That wasn't good, that wasn't good at all. Higami had taken to glancing forward so often that trying to block him out was… bad… "Should we suspect a fight?" 

"We should anyways," Higami pointed out, "but we'll probably know more once we reach the place. How far are we?"

"Couple of streets," she said, and Higami nodded towards Sasayaku.

"Go find a place to wait, this shouldn't take long."

_ Are you sure _ ? Sasayaku signed.

"Yeah," Higami said, continuing forwards, "And if things get loud… well, better for you to be further away."

Hankyo followed him, side eyeing Higami, "What's wrong?"

"I'm about ready to call in Kiha and have her blow the building up," he said, voice low, "for a member of the Brotherhood to be able to block me, they would have had to have killed a powerful mage. I-"

Higami's words died as they stepped towards the building, their Mage Sight activated. Or, well, in Hankyo's case it was more like her Mage Synesthesia. There was something… not right about this, a bloody red-howl, "Weapons out?"

Higami reached into an alleyway, a conveniently placed chain rattling as he gripped it. Hankyo took that as a yes, pulling out her machetes and opening them. Higami began weaving mind magic around them, and they made their way towards the nexus of the discordant-stain-noise-color. Nobody stepped in their way as they reached it, and Hankyo shared one last look with Higami before he pushed open the door slightly and glanced in.

His face became serious, and he dropped the chain shrugging off his coat and handing it to her, "Do me a favor, Kyo. Go make sure there's no cameras."

Hankyo glanced around the yellowing walls of the rundown apartment, "Hi, they don't-"

"Please," he said, meeting her eyes with both of his as he looked perturbed, and Hankyo suddenly realized he was asking her not because he didn't want her to see whatever he saw, but because he was legitimately hoping there would be some.

"Ok," Hankyo said, stepping away as he slid into the room.

\--- X  **Higami** X---

Shukumei Higami had been a Mage for the better part of the decade. In that time, he had fought with Werewolves, argued with Vampires, been shot at by Hunters, fist fought a Sin Eater over a game of chance and nearly any other variation of those words you cared to use. He had, in layman's terms, 'seen some shit'.

But he was still distinctly nonplussed by the splattering of blood across the walls. Mouths hung open like their owners hadn't expected it, and knives, guns and assorted other weapons lay near their body. It shouldn't have surprised him, he had warned Sasayaku himself that the Brotherhood was a group with more enemies than they had friends, but…

This still didn't seem right. Why leave the guns? They could be sold for a small fortune on the streets, with the Yakuza nearly out of the picture. And leaving evidence like this wasn't something most Supernaturals would go for. Even in the world of Quirks, a gang of eight men and women butchered like this wasn't going to go unnoticed. Maybe among Sleepers, but among the Sleepwalkers, or the Awakened? 

Higami reached for his pocket, only to stop as he realized he had handed his coat, and the gloves he kept in them to keep his fingerprints off potential evidence, to Hankyo. Breathing in, he reached down and picked up the gun from the puddle of partially congealed blood. Whoever had done this had done it recently. The blood had cooled, but wasn't fully hardened yet, nor had rot begun to set in.

Quietly, Izuku wondered what it meant that he could tell that this easily. He pushed it aside, focusing on the gun. A revolver in… .357? Strange, Hunters normally used heavier rounds. The .454 Casull he had once paid good money to have a member of the Hototogisu to remove had been evidence of that.

He supposed it made sense, if you couldn't afford silver bullets, logic dictated you went for the biggest round available (not that it would help against a werewolf or vampire).

Back on topic, Higami frowned. Not a single round had been fired.

"Hi?" Higami's eyes snapped to Hankyo, whose eyes raked over the room as she hung his door on the door handle, "Nothing."

"Dang," Higami muttered, trying to hide the bitterness from his voice as he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out both halves of his deck, spreading them around him, and carefully avoiding all the puddles of blood, "Gonna have to go backwards, I guess. Keep an eye out? I don't want to get jumped."

Hankyo nodded, pulling up her scarf and clutching her knives. Higami shot a nervous grin at her before the cards began to flip over. Despite of the fact that they had been split in two and both halves thoroughly shuffled, they were in perfect order.

World, Judgment, Sun, Moon, Star, Tower, Devil, Temperance, Death, Hanged Man, Justice, Wheel of Fortune, Hermit, Strength, Chariot, Lovers, Hierophant, Emperor, Empress, High Priestess, Magician, Fool. The arcana flowed in reverse around him, and before his eyes the room did too, slowly at first, but quicker until he slammed a hand down. The cards glowed, and Higami stepped out of the circle, a ghost in time. Not really here, even as he watched the men and women mill around, one man, the one he had picked up the gun of, seated on the threadbare couch as another dug a far too sharp fingernail out of his gut.

Well, they could have done that a little more safely, not that it mattered. Consider things would go wrong any second no-

"Fucking Wizard," he spat as the nail was finally removed, glancing towards one of the other Hunters, "hurry up!"

"Don't order me around," the red haired woman hissed, glowering at him but stepping forwards nonetheless. The twisted, corrupted Imago flared and it took every nerve in Higami's body to not attempt to throttle the woman. It wouldn't have done anything, but it confirmed they had killed a mage recently

Behind them, the door clicked, and everyone stopped. Then the door flew open and the closest Hunter to it was lifted off his feet by an invisible Force and dashed against the wall half a foot from Higami. He tensed, Imagos flickering into existence. One, two, three, four… Five.

Hell, five mages had done this? They should have known to be more careful. What were they-?

Space warped, Time slowed, Forces crashed and Matter flowed. Higami locked up as the Gross magic roared into existence and then massacred the Hunters in seconds, the one Higami had taken the gun from being flensed by wind. No subtlety. What, why weren't they afraid of the Aby-

And then one of the Mages stepped in, his his head covered by the hood of his sweat shirt as he staring down the survivor, the one who had stolen the power, the corrupted Imago flared around them, claws forming from their fingers and-

Blood exploded outwards, splattering across the walls. The woman fell backwards, nearly in two as the mage lowered their hand with a disgusted look at it. Then, for a second his grey eyes flickered to where Higami stood… and that's when everything went wrong.

It was like someone had shoved something into his chest. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. It wasn't sharp but it wasn't dull. Those all implied it  _ was _ something. Unreality waged with the Supernal and Izuku had just enough time to realize what, who, had killed the Hunters before he was forced to make a painful decision. 

Banishers. Timori. The Fearful. Those whose Awakening had gone wrong, who feared magic instead of loved it.

The Abyss tore at the control of his magic and Izuku was forced to make a tactical decision. Keep it in, or let it out? With Kyoka there, it wasn't even a question.

Izuku slammed back into his body, feeling his chest burn like he was having a heart attack, and he very well might be as the out of control magic tore at him. But then again, it might have been even worse. It might have been the magic actively tearing his cardiovascular system apart.

"Call," he rasped out, falling into Kyoka's arms as he struggled to reach his coat and his phone, "Call, Ne-"

"Right," Kyoka said softly, picking him up alongside his cards and grabbing his coat, "just relax, I'll call Sasayaku and then her."

\---X ??? X---

It took her about ten minutes to land on the rooftop they were sitting on, rushing towards them as Sasayaku poured magic into Izuku. His head was turned on it's side, like they were afraid he was going to choke on his own vomit. Slowly, her hands closed into fists and her cheerfulness faded entirely. 

"What happened?" 'Shougekiha', Walker of the Sixth Watchtower, Hado Nejire demanded quietly.

"We have Banishers in Tokyo," Izuku responded, throat sounding worn out.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts, questions, Opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?


End file.
